The Quad City Ice Eagle Bantam travel team strengthened its
grip on first place in the Central Illinois Hockey League by beating the Peoria
Junior Rivermen 4-2 in a game played Sunday morning at the Quad Cities Sports
Center.The Eagles completed the sweep
of Peoria by winning the second game behind Brandon Kruse’s shutout goaltending
by a score of 3-0.

The Ice Eagles started out slowly in the first game, playing
one of their poorest periods of the season and falling behind 2-0 after one
period.Peoria scored twice within 50
seconds in the final minute of the period to put the Eagles’ league winning
streak in jeopardy.But the Eagles came
out fired up for the second period.Jason Corcoran’s shot from the point was stopped but Les Mooney was in
perfect position to backhand the rebound into the open right side of the net.
Jack Hasselbusch also earned an assist on the Mooney goal. The Eagles outshot
Peoria 7-1 in the period, but still trailed after two periods.

Less than a minute into the final period, Ryne Takacs picked
up a pass from Corcoran in his own zone and took off for the Peoria zone.Just after crossing the blue line, Takacs
let fly with a slap shot that beat the goalie high to the stick side to even
the score at two.With QC totally
dominating play, they finally took the lead when John Carr scored with 3:35
left, assisted by Josh Moon.Peoria had
one last chance when Austin Busch was called for checking from behind with :21
seconds left, but the shorthanded Eagles iced the game when Jason Corcoran hit
the empty net with just two seconds left, for his first goal of the
season.

Goalie Brandon Morgan had to face only one shot in the final
two periods as he gained credit for the win.

In the second game, the two teams battled through a
scoreless first period.With almost
five minutes gone in the second, Les Mooney beat the Peoria defense and went in
alone to score his second of the day to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead.Six minutes later, Chad Dotterer made a similar
move around the right defense and scored from 8 feet out to increase the lead
to 2-0.The Eagles close out the
scoring midway through the final period when Josh Moon scored from the slot on
a perfect pass from John Carr to make the final score 3-0.Brandon Kruse stopped all 15 Peoria shutouts
in earning his shutout.

The wins improved the Eagles’ record to 6-1 in the CIHL, and
22-8-1 overall, with the team moving to its next tournament this coming weekend
in Winona, Minnesota.